I don't like the auto hide launcher for it is too annoying for me. The launcher stays hidden and to reveal it, the mouse pointer has to be moved to the default hot spot. I'd instead like to have the hide to dodge windows previously available in Ubuntu 11.10. How do I change back to this behaviour?

I tried out the "real dodge" version, and it works so-so in my opinion. Most notably, the launcher does not "go above" active windows, but pushes them to the side, where it sometimes gets stuck (so the launcher doesn't go away again). In general, when the launcher shifts position, so does many other things on screen (e.g., icons on the desktop).

An alternative is to (almost) permanently hide the launcher (see here) and use a dock with the wished for behavior (for example cairo-dock).

12.04

"dodge-windows approach tested very poorly. We thought it would work
well, tried it, tested it, and have had to evolve from there based on
evidence....

If users encounter the dodge by moving windows against
the launcher, then it is fine. They see that the dodge happens when
they push the launcher away, they discover they can move the window
back and the launcher will reappear. So far so good.

Here's the problem. Most users don't discover the dodging by moving a window till
it touches the launcher. They first encounter it when they maximise a
window. So, they login to the desktop. Good. They start an app. Good.
Then they maximise a window, and the launcher "disappears". To these
users, the behaviour is deeply uncomfortable, random. And these are in
fact the majority of users. It also turns out that users who can work
with dodging launchers can also work perfectly well with launchers
which always hide when not used."

By default the launcher is always visible.

More information about how to configure the launcher can be found in the Q&A

This will revert unity back to the 4 options for hiding, see no issues here after doing so. There will likely be packages available in the future for those that don't wish to build unity themselves. While Tips & Tutorials still allows support it can be gotten here, ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1967822
–
dougApr 29 '12 at 4:44

Thanks for your answer. It would have been really nice if the application worked. Unfortunately, it spams awk errors and sets the launcher to never-hide. I think I'm giving up on unity for now, less than 24h after I started using it. :)
–
Mr. PixelApr 28 '12 at 12:10

12.04

Unity 2D is the only way to have dodge in Precise out of the box. After logging in, open dconf-editor and navigate to /com/canonical/unity-2d/launcher/hide-mode and set its value to 2 (the default is 0).

The older scripts do not work as you(Seth) have discovered. However the newer scripts that worked for 12.10 and 13.04 work for 13.10.

The site webupd8.org has the instructions. As is stated, the instructions are for 12.10 and 13.04 but I tested the one in Virtualbox and it worked flawlessly(well as well as they did in 12.04 up, there are a few limitations as noted in the article but all in all they work well)

Unfortunately, the ppa for Saucy has not bee updated to include these scripts (at least not as far as I was able to determine) so the only solution is to download them directly.

There are 2 different scripts and they cannot be installed together.

The one script only dodges maximized windows. It's biggest limitation is that it will allow the launcher to overlap any windows that were opened while it was hidden.

The other script brings back the old style of dodging windows(almost) in that it will hide the launcher when any window is in it's(the launchers) space. The biggest limitation that I noticed is that if any window is open that is in the launcher's space, the launcher will stay hidden even if that window is minimized.

The download links that I included above come directly from the article on webupd8.org.

I would suggest that you read the article on webupd8.org that I linked to at it gives a good rundown of the scripts, (I don't want to get into plagiarism territory by including too much of the article.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not play too long with the 13.10 VM but in the time I used it I didn’t notice any unexpected issues with the dodge windows scripts. I also did not play long at all(maybe an hour) with the "original" dodge windows script as the hidden launcher limitation I mentioned above was not to my liking. The dodge maximized windows script has seen maybe 10+ hours of use with success.

As an editorial note(read my opinion, which in worth exactly what you paid for it); These "dodge windows" question and workarounds are all over AU and the internet, I don't understand why Canonical is so married to the idea that it was a bad feature. Yes I have seen the articles about why they removed it and it seems like "thin soup" to me, obviously many user want it, and the scripts work well enough.

To give credit where it is due(I think*), I believe that @JorgeCastro wrote the first work-around script back in 12.04(the dodge maximized windows one). Thanks a bunch Jorge, this missing feature was a deal breaker for me and I was considering switching away from Unity(was considering Cinnamon but it was buggy, so you really saved me at least.)

I have taken a bit of a liberty in including this editorial, and my intention was not to start a discussion on the subject, just to state what seems to be a common opinion in the Ubuntu community. Please do not respond to this as a discussion, or I, or the mods will be forced to edit or delete this answer.

Do you use 13.10 with dodge windows on a regular basis? (btw, I don't know where the downvote came from..)
–
Seth♦Dec 7 '13 at 4:41

idk where or why the down vote, it was made very quickly after I answered...And no I don't use it regularly, I have it in a VM and have maybe 12-13 hours on it, but I noticed no difference between that and 12.04(which I do use, I kept putting of the upgrade as I did not want to try to reinstall all my programs, now I might as well just wait till 14.04...) the script may be a bit quicker to work in 13.10, but that may be just because Unity is quicker, but it still is not quite as quick as the original behavior was back in 11.04& 11.10, there is still a slight delay before the launcher returns
–
TrailRiderDec 7 '13 at 7:51

Could you add some more details? How well does this work? Have you tested it?
–
Seth♦Dec 7 '13 at 4:43

I'm using it right now. Unity dodge maximized windows hides on all maximized windows just fine. I tried using unity dodge windows and it did not work properly. I prefer maximized windows anyway. It required a reboot.
–
mchidDec 7 '13 at 5:44

Also, I added a script to /etc/init.d that I downloaded here link I'm not sure if it makes a difference.
–
mchidDec 7 '13 at 6:00

The PPA that was available in 12.10 and 13.04 has still not been updated for 13.10 or 14.04 as of this writing.

In my testing I have found that the "Dodge Windows" script (that would nearly restore the old behavior of the dodge windows) no longer works....when it is installed, the launcher hides constantly and changing the behavior in the System Settings does not work until the script is removed.

The "Dodge Maximized Windows" does still work with the same limitations that I mentioned in my answer for 13.10 with two others....

on some webpages the window will resize so that the launcher is visible, this seem to be related to specific webpages (ighome.com is the only one I've found so far) switching to any other open tabs will restore the window and hide the launcher again....(I use Firefox so this may be different for Chrome or other browsers)

When you minimize a maximized window, the launcher will remain hidden a long as the window is open - this was not the case before, (the launcher would return if the window was minimized to the launcher)

I will edit this answer at some later point if a better solution comes about or the current scripts are edited to work better.

As I said in my other answer, the download link comes right from the lauchpad PPA that was for 13.10.....her is the link: